Raphael Catfish

[fishprotector]

Hi. I was looking at a bunch of these in my lfs today and they look great. I have been doing some reasearch into them, and apart from being heavily nocturnal and having spikey spines, is there anything else that I should know? How would they be with Black Ruby Barbs? What about with Plecs? Thanks in advance

 

[minnnt]

Mine were never seen mate. I had both the striped and spotted variety. VERY VERY spiny, and will lock the pecktoral fins if touched and are quite happy to stab you with a spine. lol.

 

[Davo86]

tbh unless your looking to keep a decent sized group of these then you will hardly see them and IMO they would become a unworthy addition

 

[fishprotector]

Thanks guys, it sounds like they are even more elusive than originally thought. How many is a decent group?

 

[mattlee]

these fish get more adventurous with age. i had 2 6-7 inch specimins in with large cichlids and once they were settled they would race to the surface to eat the floating cichlid pellets!

ive since sold them on and bought 3 juvis that im growing on, they do hide quite a bit but most catfish will/do.

they are great looking cats and with the spikes running down the sides look that bit different to all the others. they arent the most expensive cats either so well worth a go in my opinion, but if you buy then small then dont expect to see them all the time but that goes for most cats.

ive currently got a megalodoras which is of the same family but gets much bigger and this hides all of the time and only comes out at night. the doras are very peacefull fish that can be kept with pretty much anything you like

 

[fishprotector]

Thanks for the replies guys. I went with three Pictus cats in the end though. They are very adventurous and look really cute.

 

[Aaron89]

Thanks for the replies guys. I went with three Pictus cats in the end though. They are very adventurous and look really cute.

Good choice, far more active but i found water quality is quite key to them, regular water changes and a good variety of food keeps them happy!

Rapheal are also lazy and dont tend to move much!

 

[fishprotector]

I change 100l of my 300l once every week and the tank is well over filtered so the water quality is good. They are little piggies though. They constantly try to steal the Cichlid Gold off my Cichlids. They just seem to swallow them whole, as you can sometimes see the outline in the bellies.